Lids

We all doing good?

Good.

Man, I am so excited about what we're talking about today.

Last Sunday, we started a little mini-series.

It's just a few weeks long.

In fact, we'll wrap it up next week.

So, very much the opposite of our Abraham series that we started in like January and just finished a couple weeks ago.

But it's called the Full Life.

The full life.

We are exploring this concept that God has promised us a full life.

I shared some scriptures last week, one of which was from the story of Jesus talking to a woman at a well in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

And they have this conversation, and Jesus uses the well as a metaphor for what he gives, and in that conversation, he says this in verse 13.

He says, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It will become a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are apparently supposed to have a fresh bubbling spring of eternal life from within you at all times.

And I'm sure many times it feels like that.

And I also know from experience, unless I'm an outlier, it doesn't always feel like that.

I don't know if I would describe every single day of my life as just fresh bubbling spring, you know?

Just overflowing.

Just overflowing.

In fact, this is a little aside, I guess.

Um, and it is encouraging because Jesus didn't say it would feel like that every day.

I think it's very, very important.

He said we would have that, but he didn't say we would feel it.

And we as believers have to be mature enough to recognize there's a difference between something being true and feeling something.

Sometimes our faith gets reduced down to feelings, and you'll have a lot of people, unfortunately, especially in the social media world out there, that are, they'll talk about, you know, their their God experience, and they'll just be like, and I'm just like, every day, it's just overflowing.

And I that that's if that's true, great.

I don't think, I think a lot of times that's just garbage, though.

You know, in fact, there was a guy on our worship team, great guy, and he was like, Yeah, man, I struggle because sometimes I'm singing these songs, and I'm like, man, I am, I'm not feeling this.

I'm struggling right now, and I'm singing about how good God is, and I'm struggling.

And he said, then I see these worship people on Instagram, and I'm like, red flag.

Uh, you know, and they're like, I just worship out of my overflow.

And I'm like, I promise you guys, when I teach on Sundays, I'm not teaching out of my overflow.

Okay.

And when you read scripture, that's not what you see.

You don't see people like Paul isn't writing letters like, guys, I am just so awesome and everything's going so incredibly well for me.

These are my leftovers.

No, he's like, from the depths of my crushed, broken heart, this is what God has taught me.

Right?

There's a difference between being filled with God and feeling bubbly.

So when he says a fresh bubbling spring within you, that doesn't mean that you will always feel all bubbly.

Does that make sense?

And if you encounter Christians who make you think or you hear people talk or whatever it is in our world, there's so much stuff online, and like something's wrong with you if you're just not feeling it every day.

I don't see that anywhere in Scripture.

I just don't see that.

So just does that make sense?

Okay, a side over.

But we are promised to be full, whether we feel it or not.

John 10, 10, Jesus says the thief, talking about Satan, comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that they may have life and have it to the full.

Other translations say an abundant life.

The New Living Translation says a rich, satisfying life.

That is what is promised to you.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

That is a promise.

If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, for right standing with God, which has been won for you by Jesus, but also something that we can live in on a daily basis, just trying to do what is right by God, you will be filled if that is what you desire.

That is a promise.

Finally, Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Paul says, I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

And to know that this love, which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

That is your that is what's promised to you.

You are promised to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

Now, I don't know what that is, I don't know how to quantify that.

I imagine it's large, the fullness of God.

But you're supposed to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

Wow.

Like my brain can't even wrap around what that means, but I think it means full.

We are supposed to live as believers a life that is filled, filled with hope and peace, with love, with grace for other people, with patience and kindness and gentleness.

That's what we're supposed to have.

And whether we feel it or not, it's supposed to be there, but sometimes when it's not, we have to ask hard questions.

Like, if you're not experiencing a full life, is God failing?

Is he not holding up his end of the bargain?

Is he falling short of his promises?

I have found that he does not do that.

And I can look at my life, and in the periods in which it seemed like God wasn't there, it's pretty clear from this point of view at this point in life, like, oh, I was mistaken.

In fact, sometimes I see how faithful he was, it just didn't feel awesome at the time, and other times I see how I was missing what he was doing.

God does not break his promises, he is a faithful God.

I have seen it time and time again in my life and in others.

This role gives me a unique perspective into so many people's lives where I see he is faithful and he is true.

He does not break his promises.

But we as people often struggle to experience what he's promised because things can get in the way.

And so, specifically when it comes to living a filled life, to having a full life, we're looking at three things that can sabotage that.

And if we can just become aware of these, it can help.

Being aware of it, going to God in prayer with it, saying, Hey Lord, I need help with this, we start to experience that fullness that He's promised.

And so last week we announced what those three are, and it's leaks, lids, and lesser things.

Sometimes you're not full because you have a leak.

You have things in your life.

It can be insecurities, it can be guilt, shame, all kinds of things that it just creates a leak in you.

And no matter what gets poured in, it all leaks out, and you feel empty, and oftentimes you feel upset at the people or organizations around you because you're like, you ought to be doing more, and I don't feel full.

And if you with this or if you with that, maybe even at God, God, you're not doing what you're supposed to do.

And the reality is if you have a leak, even a small one, whatever gets put in leaks out.

And we need the Holy Spirit to help us become aware of those leaks and shore those up, and shore those up, which He He does and can do.

And if you weren't here last Sunday, you can listen about that.

I am a leaky person, I will tell you that.

I I am a very leaky person.

And thankfully, I I I can own that and I become aware of those and hopefully address those.

But uh, but I've got I've got some leaks.

I don't know if you have any leaks or not.

I have I have a few.

Today we're gonna talk about the second, which is lids.

Sometimes we don't experience what God is trying to fill us with because we've got a lid on and nothing can get in.

Like, have you ever met a person who just can't receive advice?

Do not nudge the person next to you, whatever you're doing.

Don't do that, it's so tempting, right?

This message is about you, not the person sitting next to you, okay?

No, would you ever meet someone who just it's like nothing gets through?

You can tell them, you can just you ever raised a teenager?

Anyone ever raised one of those?

You know what I'm talking about?

We're having the same, it's the same thing, right?

No, I'm just joking.

But like, kind of.

You you have people in your life that you can you can give them truth and wisdom and logic and and they can just not receive it at all.

There's a there's a lid.

It just doesn't get in at all.

Sometimes we are missing the fullness of God because maybe even unknown to us, we've got a lid on and nothing can fit, nothing can go inside.

There's a lot of things that can become become lids.

We'll give some obvious examples.

Pride.

Pride is one of those.

If you're if you have pride, nothing gets in.

Right?

Because to some degree, pride is such an obsession with self and a confidence in self that you know you don't think you need anyone else.

You don't think you need anyone else's wisdom, you don't think you need anyone else's advice, you don't think you need anyone else's anything, even God's sometimes.

And so there's just a lid on because you think you've got everything that you need.

There can be lots of, we all deal with pride, all of us do.

There's like low-level pride experiences.

I was thinking about a memory I had.

I actually called my mom and asked for permission to share this story on behalf of my dad uh because I didn't want to call my dad on this.

She said yes, but he was there, so it's okay.

So I have this we grew up mowing lawns.

Man, lawns were, I don't know if you grew up doing lawn work, uh, but my dad, first job he ever had as a kid, was mowing lawns, and he used his money for mowing lawns to buy a bigger lawn mower.

So he could buy he could mow bigger lawns.

And then when I was a kid, we had a lawn and we mowed that lawn.

And when I was in fourth grade, we bought a house with five acres that we maintained.

And so I don't know if you've ever mowed five acres.

It's a day.

Okay, it is a day.

And so I was a you know, fourth grader on a riding lawn mower.

My dad gave me a portion of the lawn, and we mowed a lot.

There's a lot of mowing going on.

And so my dad, he just cared deeply about the lawn.

Some would say, a bit too much, and that sum would be me.

Like, no joke, we I would mow, and some he would walk the lawn with me.

And sometimes he would get low to the ground, like get face level, and look at how even it was, and sometimes he would just look at me and go, what happened there?

That's a thing that he did.

But he he taught me something.

I learned something there.

No, he taught me how to work hard and care about the details.

In fact, I got hired to hire uh to mow another guy's lawn one time in high school, and I got done mowing it, and he said, These are the straightest lines I have ever seen.

You know, I was like, all right, there you go.

That's what it was.

I guess I had a I missed my calling.

Could have done that.

Um well when I was in middle school, my dad bought this brand new lawnmower, and it was this cub cadet, really nice lawnmower.

I mean, my dad, like, I I have memories of him washing and I want to say, like, waxing the lawnmower.

I don't know if that's true.

And dad, if you're watching, I don't, but it fits.

It fits.

Like my dad took care of this.

Well, one day, he just comes in the house fuming mad.

Just all kind of, I mean, he was just angry because the lawnmower wasn't working, wouldn't start.

And he was just like, ah, this thing's a piece of junk.

I paid all this money for it, you know, all this stuff.

And he's just going, he's he's not in a good place.

And my mom looks at him and says, Well, Mike, did you see if it's out of gas?

And he looked at her like, You think I'm stupid?

He's like, Yeah, and he looked at her.

I was in the, you know, as a kid when your parents are having a fight, like mom and dad are fighting, and you're in the room, but you're like, if I stay really still, they won't know I'm you know you have those moments?

It was one of those.

I'm just like, and he's like, You think, you think I would have opened up the engine, you think I would have taken that thing apart?

You think I would have like all this stuff if it was out of gas, Rhonda, that's my mom's name.

He's like, seriously, you think I would have that engine taken apart, and like if it was just out of gas, come on, and he slammed the door and walked outside.

Five minutes later, we see my dad walking with a gas can.

Like, and he came back inside and no one said a word.

No one said anything.

He's like, fixed it, you know, it was all good.

It's one of my favorite memories.

I love my dad.

But that was just a look, and he would admit it, it was a low-level pride moment, right?

Not a big deal, but just one of those moments like, are you serious?

You think I wouldn't have thought of that?

Like sometimes just a little bit of pride can block simple solutions to your problems.

Someone in your life, and maybe it's not the person you expect, maybe it's a child, maybe it's that person at work that drives you nuts.

But they say something in that moment, and it's exactly what you needed, but you just can't receive it because there's pride.

Pride can be a lid.

We actually see much more severe examples of pride in the Bible, in scripture, for example, in uh the book of John, there's a story where Jesus has healed this man of blindness.

And this is incredible, it's a miracle.

He healed this blind, the person who was born blind.

And the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they're up in arms about it, they're fuming mad because they hate Jesus.

And every time Jesus does a miracle, it makes him look good, and they don't like that.

So they bring this man in to question him.

And in John chapter 9, verse 26, we get kind of in the middle of their conversation.

John 9:26

What did he do?

They asked, How did he heal you?

Look, the man exclaimed, I told you once, didn't you listen?

Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you want to become his disciples too?

And then they cursed him and said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

We know God spoke to Moses.

We don't even know where this man comes from.

Well, that's very strange, the man replied.

He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know where he comes from.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.

By the way, that's something he would have heard them say.

But he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.

Ever since the world began, no one has ever been able to open the eyes of someone born blind.

If this man were not from God, he couldn't have done it.

Now think about the simple wisdom here.

Right?

The simple wisdom.

Like he has to be from heaven.

How on else, I mean, how else could you explain what he's doing?

There's no way.

Guys, you have you yourselves have said that God doesn't listen to sinners, he only listens to those who are righteous.

And how simple wisdom.

Like the Pharisees should have been like, that is a really good point.

Let's go talk to Jesus.

But here's their response.

They say, Oh, I lost my place.

This is important.

Hold on.

Boom, found it.

Verse 34, you were born a total sinner, they answered.

Are you trying to teach us?

And they threw him out of the synagogue.

That's their response.

You were born a total sinner.

This man was blind, now he can see.

A miracle has been done in their presence.

And rather than be humbled and worship Jesus or learn from Jesus, or even just be curious about who Jesus actually is, they have already made up their minds in their pride.

They cannot fathom this Jesus from Nazareth, who they've already labeled a heretic, to be from God, and they cannot receive it.

Imagine being someone who has spent your entire life studying the Word of God, believing in your heart that you love God and worship God, and the very Messiah that has been promised to you, the very God who you worship is in your presence.

Like he's in your village, he's right over there, and you won't go talk to him, even though you're supposed to be like the expert on God.

Like pride can blind you.

That man was not the blind man, even when he was physically blind.

They are the blind ones.

And Jesus would call them that.

He would say, You are the blind leading the blind.

Because pride is blinding, and it's a lid, and when you have pride, nothing can get in.

And I'll be the first to admit that, man, I have pride.

Like, thankfully, the older I get, the more dumb things I've done.

You have this ever-growing list of stupid things.

Anyone else with me?

Like your list gets big every year.

It's like surprised by how dumb I can be.

Um, you know, hopefully life goes on and you you get humbled by realizing just how easy it is to make mistakes and how easy it is to be wrong.

But no matter what, we are all susceptible to pride.

And I'll give you an example real quick of one of the ways you can know.

Like, how can you know if you're you deal with pride?

If you want to, because it's hard to look in the mirror and be like, I'm a prideful person.

But if you want to know whether or not you deal with pride, let's look at this story real quick from uh from the book of Mark.

This is pretty early in the ministry of Jesus.

He ends up going back to his hometown.

He's left and he's done all these miracles.

When he left, he was Jesus of Nazareth.

Now he's Jesus of Nazareth.

Like he's a big deal.

It says, Jesus left that part of the country, returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown.

And the next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

And they asked, Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?

Then they scoffed.

He's just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and his sisters live right here among us.

They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

One of the easiest ways to tell if pride is something you deal with, is are you easily offended?

Like if you get offended easily.

How dare they?

Who do they think they are?

How could they say that to me?

If just use that as a great litmus test to see if you deal with pride.

Because I think we can all say this: look, as believers, we've been forgiven of every sin that we've ever done.

If you believe in Jesus, you believe that the death of Jesus on the cross covers all of your sin and every bad thing you've ever done, every bad thing you've ever thought has been totally, completely, not just forgiven by God, but forgotten by God.

Scripture says that that He's buried it as far as in the ocean and He's put it as far as the East is from the West.

And if that's the reality of our lives, we should be like the hardest people to offend on the planet.

Like being a Christian, you'd be like, you try to offend me.

I've been forgiven of everything I've ever done, and I've done some stuff, so let's go.

Try to like, we should be hard to offend.

But if you're easy to offend, that's a pride thing.

And pride is a lid, and no matter what God is trying to pour into you, good luck.

So pride, we have we have to deal ruthlessly with pride.

Recognize it, call it what it is, humble yourself before God, confess it, and say, Lord, remove that lid.

Now, I was talking with Megan, and uh I was talking about lids and all this stuff, and she she this was like a couple days ago, she shared with me, she said, I I have been thinking about lids all week long, ever since you mentioned this.

And she said, I've got this one that I've dealt with for a long time, and as she talked about it and described it, I was like, that's really good.

I should use that.

And which I've done a lot, by the way.

So just being honest, it'd be wrong of me to say I've never used any of Megan's good ideas, okay?

Just letting you guys know that.

All right.

Um, and I usually give credit, mostly, but but it became really clear to me as Megan talked about it.

I was like, you know what, babe, you you just need to, you just need to share this.

And so I asked Megan if she would come out and share the last portion of the message today and continue this conversation about lids because what she shared was really, really insightful, really meaningful to me, and I thought you guys should hear it.

Is that cool?

All right.

So, Megan, you want to come out?

All right.

Hey everyone.

Okay, so we're gonna continue a conversation about lids.

We're gonna take it a little bit different direction.

Um, but before we talk about like spiritual lids, metaphoric, metaphorical lids, um, I want to express a little bit of frustration with lids in general as I think about them.

So I have a point of contention with lids just as a thing in my home.

So these are the lids in my house.

I think I have a picture of it because I took a picture last night.

This is my lid drawer.

Okay.

So obviously I'm not the only one because you laugh, because you probably have this too.

I also have a water bottle drawer, this drawer.

None of the lids, go back to the lids.

You have to go back to the lids, the picture.

None of those lids match, now go back to the bottles.

Those bottles.

None of them match.

It's a drawer of lids, and nothing matches the drawer of bottles, and it drives me absolutely insane.

How do we have that?

How did that happen?

Because I get to a point of frustration every couple of years where I throw it all away.

And I buy bottles that match the lids, and they're all interchangeable, and they all fit, and it's beautiful and glorious, and everybody has matching water bottles and lids, and then two years later, I'm left with that.

How does that happen?

I don't know how that happens, but it does.

Where are the bottles that match those lids?

Where did they go?

They didn't get eaten by the dishwasher, that's not a thing.

I understand that socks could somehow get sucked into a dryer.

Water bottles cannot get sucked into a dishwasher, that's not a thing.

And I don't know how lids and water bottles disappear, but it that happens.

So I'm left with a junk drawer of lids that I have to then work up for two more years to actually toss.

And they're ridiculous lids.

I'll explain.

We have to have these lids in my house because we have a lid that can hold cereal while you drink the milk from around it.

Have you heard of this lid?

We have that lid.

Um, my daughter had to have a lid that holds her lip gloss on her Stanley Cup.

Why are we holding lip gloss?

I bought it for her.

I'm the crazy one.

Okay, it also has a fuzzball keychain for keys she doesn't own.

She's 12.

I bought that lid.

Okay, these are the lids that now exist.

In the junk drawer for the cups we no longer own.

This is my nightmare.

Okay.

I hate lids.

But we live with them.

Not just in the physical, also in the metaphorical spiritual sense, we live with these lids.

So let's get to that part.

What lids do you live with?

What lids have you hoarded in a drawer and you're keeping because they serve some sort of purpose?

And do you really need them?

Okay, what does that look like?

Because life tells us we need these lids.

Get the lid that holds the cereal.

Get the lip gloss lid.

Okay, life tells us we need lids.

Because as we move through our lives on a more serious note, we go through experiences that are sharp.

We bump into people's jagged edges, and we experience pain.

And it could be small pain, it could be big pain, it could be things that are our fault.

It could be things that we had no hand in that just happen because the world is very, very, very broken.

But it happens.

We go through pain and we get hurt.

And life tells us we need protection.

So we go, okay, got it.

Not gonna experience that again.

I'm gonna put up a shield, lesson learned, don't go through that again.

Don't do that again.

Don't go through that experience again.

Don't deal with that type of person again.

And we put up a shield or a wall or a lid.

And we start collecting life experience lids to keep ourselves safe from the things that hurt us in life.

And the thing is, it works.

We get protected, we get protected from the pain, but we also push out peace and love and joy and relational connection because we end up building a fortress of lids that keep things out, but we don't have pain, so it's a trade-off, and we end up dealing ourselves into our own little comfy drawer of lids, if you will.

It works, and I say this because I live life with a lot of lids, and it's effective, it keeps you protected.

Um I'm going to describe what it feels like to live with a lid, or a lot of lids, to be honest, as a formerly lidded person.

Um I'm going to describe what it feels like to live with a lid.

If you have lids, you're going to be like, ah, yep, that's me, that's me.

If you're not like this, you probably know someone who is.

You're probably friends with them.

You might be married to them.

Um, I have found that leaky people like to marry lidded people.

So buckle up for that.

All right.

So fun.

So fun.

Um, you know, leaks are different than lids.

Because when you're leaky, when you have leaks, you're experiencing, you're receiving whatever it is from the Lord or whatever it is from the people around you, when there's love or kindness or joy or peace or whatever's happening around you, you're receiving it, it's just leaving quickly.

And you're experiencing it, it's leaving, and you're trying to chase it and grab it and find it again, and it's you're experiencing it and it's leaving.

When you live with a lid, you're not receiving it, or maybe a better way to describe it is you really have to struggle to receive it.

The people around you who like you, who probably even love you, okay, are telling you they love you.

You're in a church filled with people who love you, but you have to work really hard to believe that's true.

If you have, we'll play a little game.

You might have a lid if, okay?

Um, you might have a lid if I'm saying that you're like, I don't know.

I have a church full of people that love me.

Yeah, right, people suck.

Okay?

You might have a lid, okay, if that's the thought that runs through your mind.

Honestly, let's look at let's be honest.

If you're like, yeah, I'm full of a church of people, but let's all be real, it's people, and people are people y and we don't like people.

If that's you, you might have a lid.

Because I know that thought.

If your thought is, yeah, but people hurt, you might have a lid.

Because you've put up the wall to keep yourself away from the people.

That's a lid.

You might have a lid if you really, when you like worship and you're in the presence of God, you have to really struggle to believe that what you're seeing is true.

You have to remind yourself, yeah, okay, God is love.

It's true, it's true.

I believe it, I believe it.

Like I'm gonna go through it again in my head.

I believe it, it's true, it's true.

Faithful, yes, he's faithful, he's faithful, he's faithful.

You have to remind yourself on repeat that it's true, that it's true, that it's true, that it's true.

Because you have to struggle through the lid.

Does that make sense?

Okay, you might have a lid if you feel alone a lot, even when you're around people that you intellectually know, love you, and care about you, and you're in environments full of joy and love and peace and goodness, but it doesn't like get to you.

You want it to, it might for a minute, but at the end of the day, it's like just me by myself, is how you feel.

Because the lids are a big blanket fortress of protection, and you feel alone because no one really knows who you are.

Because lids present a lot of different ways on the outside.

It can present as control, it can present as perfection, you don't get to see Megan, you get to see Megan 2.0, okay?

Only the Megan I want you to see.

Not the Megan with no makeup on and her hair not done at the grocery store, right?

You don't get to see that, Megan.

You only get to see the one I want you to see, the one that has separation.

So no one really knows me.

So I feel alone.

You might have a lid.

Lids can present like criticism or cynicism.

You know, people, I don't people, sorry.

It can present like introversion as an excuse to opt out.

I'm not saying being an introvert isn't real, okay?

I recharge in my mind.

I like to process in my mind in quiet solitude.

But it's not a reason to retreat to a fortified fortress of lids with lid cannons to shoot at everybody, okay?

So that is what lids look like.

That is what lids feel like.

You're not really fully known.

You're at night, you know, you're in your bed not really feeling like anyone really gets to know you, even the people closest to you.

There's pieces you hold back, even if your social media is full of things that look like you're connecting and relating and around everybody, it's lidded.

And you have to struggle through the lids.

And this is very hard, especially when we're Jesus followers, because we're supposed to have the fruits of the Spirit.

How do you have love and joy and peace and gentleness and kindness and goodness in a lidded vessel?

Where does it come from?

Because when you live that way, what you've, to be honest, have decided, and I speak from experience, I will be strong enough, I will be smart enough, I'm the only one I can trust, because everybody else is a little scary.

So I have to be enough y enough to get all the stuff from myself.

God, you can help me, I'll let you in a little bit, but it's just gonna be right here.

We're all gonna stay right here.

But that's not how fullness works, it just doesn't work that way.

If you uh I didn't tell the um verse team, but if you look back at Ephesians 3, I'm gonna pull up, I'm gonna look it back up near my Bible.

If you can pull up Ephesians 3, it's um verse 18.

Um, there's a little hint in that verse.

In the verse about fullness and being filled to the fullness, in Ephesians 3, 18, where Paul is talking, he says, May you be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth.

It's with all the Lord's holy people, with all the saints.

This is a collective experience.

Fullness doesn't happen in a vacuum.

You cannot be fully full on your own.

It doesn't work that way.

You might have a lid if you're exhausted, if you're spent and still empty, living on the meagerness of just the stuff that kind of trickles in around the edges.

Because you're doing it by yourself, and we're not meant to live that way.

It's exhausting.

It's exhausting.

God said it's not good for us to be alone.

When Adam was by himself in the garden, God said, This isn't good.

You need someone with you.

We're not supposed to just muster it up, we're supposed to have each other.

Fullness is actually fulfilled with God's holy people.

So if you're sitting there and going, ooh, okay, so got a lid.

What do we do?

What do lidded people do?

Because right now you probably want to run back to a blanket for it somewhere and hide.

I get it.

That's how I usually spent every Sunday afternoon, by the way.

Pull the curtain back a little bit.

I would come to church, I'd hang out with all of you, I would smile, I'd hug you, I'd love you, I'd love your kids, I'd go, I'd do all the church stuff, go to the prayer room, pray for you, go home, wrap myself in a blanket, check out for the rest of the day.

It was too much.

Because I'm trying to muster it up on my own.

But there's a better way.

We have to take the lids off.

Fun, right?

Okay, I know.

We have to take the lids off, and that's really difficult because for those of us who live with lids, that's terrifying.

Those lids are our life's work.

We spend our whole life putting lids where they belong.

Because they belong there, they've served a really great purpose.

What do how it it's like you say take the lid off, it's like it does not compute.

I don't know how to what do you mean?

What do you mean?

How do you take a lid off?

But that's what we actually need to do.

We need to remove the lids that have protected us for so long.

But then what?

So God and I had a conversation about this very thing.

Um, side note, by the way, if you're not a lidded person and this is someone you know and love, you probably tell them, like, I love you, you're great, and they're like, thanks.

If it's not getting in, this is why.

You're not crazy.

They just have a lid.

Keep loving them, keep telling them they're awesome and wonderful, and and and surrounding them and being there and for them and encouraging them, and let the Holy Spirit do his work.

Okay, back to what we were talking about.

All right, so lidded people, you're gonna take these lids off.

Here we go.

When you take the lid off, the risk is that you're now exposed and you're now vulnerable.

And all the work you've done for your whole life to stay safe is now undone.

And God and I were having a conversation about this because I was like, Lord, I not taking lids off, not doing that.

He showed me something that changed my mind.

What he showed me was it's in his character to cover us.

And it's in his character to make sure that we are covered and not exposed.

And when I first thought of that in my mind as I was praying and talking with the Lord, and that thought kind of came across my mind, like Justin said earlier, you know what your own brain sounds like?

It wasn't my brain, because it's not for me to think that God would cover me.

I was like, mmm, I don't believe you, God.

I don't believe that.

Because you expose evil and you expose sin and you expose the therapy, like you expose stuff.

You don't cover up.

What are you talking about?

And then I had this other thought that didn't totally sound like my brain, where he said, check me on it.

Think through that for a minute.

You know Bible stories, you know God's word.

Think about it.

Do I expose my children?

And it caught me.

And I started thinking through it.

Take a look at Genesis 3.

His very first children, Adam and Eve.

So this is when the whole fruit situation goes down in the garden.

They're told not to eat the fruit, but they do, and they sin.

Verse 6, the woman was convinced.

She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too.

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.

So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

They feel the pain of shame.

Their first jagged edge of life comes at them.

They feel the hurt of shame.

What do they do?

Build a lid, cover yourself with fig leaves.

See it?

See the pattern?

Start establishing.

So then the Lord finds them in the garden, has a long discussion with Adam and Eve.

The serpent pulls a serpent in, curses a serpent, promises Jesus ultimate covering.

But then he does something really, really beautiful.

He knows he's going to have to cast them out of the garden.

A lot of things are going to be set in motion.

But all they have is leaf clothing.

All they've experienced is this mild and peaceful garden.

And they're about to get thrown into a world they are not ready for.

God knows it.

Adam and Eve don't know what they're, like they don't know what they've gotten themselves into.

And look what God does in verse 21.

And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

God looks at them, unprepared, exposed, not ready, and with his own hands kills one of his creations, handmakes a covering for them, covers them, and prepares them for what's ahead.

He covers them.

It was their own fault, it was their own mistake.

But God's character is to cover them, not to expose them, not to kick them out of the garden and say, go figure it out.

He covers them because that's his character.

Those are his children, and he covers them.

I think about David.

That was another one that popped into my head.

David and Saul and what they went through.

Justin talked about it a couple messages ago, about how Saul hunted David down, threw spears at him multiple times.

David's family had to go into hiding.

Saul made David's life miserable.

If anybody had a reason to decide, I'm done with people.

I could literally build a fortress, right?

If anybody had a reason to decide, I'm done, it would be David.

But David saw the Lord as his covering.

And in Psalm 18, he writes this beautiful Psalm after he's rescued from Saul.

And this is it.

I love you, Lord.

You are my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior.

My God is my rock in whom I find protection.

Look at all the covering words.

He is my shield, the power that saves me and my place of safety.

I called on the Lord who is worthy of praise and he saved me from my enemies.

You can go on and read this whole psalm.

Make that your like devotion at some point this week to read Psalm 18 and pick out every time the Lord covers.

He covers his people because that is his character.

One of my absolute favorites is Jesus.

Who could know the heart and character of God more than God?

Jesus.

Talking about the father in the story of the prodigal son.

And you get that in Luke 15.

The prodigal has left his father, told him, I wish you were dead, takes the fortune, squanders it.

And then in verse um, what is it?

17 comes to his senses.

He's gonna go back to his father.

How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death?

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

He rehearses how he's going to cover himself.

Okay, all right.

Here's how I'm gonna get back to my father.

Here's what I'm gonna say.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, he starts his rehearsed speech, right?

Okay, all right, here's my rehearsed speech.

Father, I've sinned against heaven, I've sinned against you, I'm no longer with To be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

He covers him.

He covers his shame, all the guilt he's feeling, all the pain that he's in, even though it was his own fault.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fat and calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For the son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate.

Every time someone comes to Jesus, every time someone is brought to Jesus, Jesus covers them.

That is his character.

So if you are someone who has built your life behind walls and lids and whatever, for whatever reason, your fault, someone else's fault, whatever the reason, you can take the lids off because you're not going to be exposed.

You are covered.

Fire yourself from the job of holding the lids.

You can live freely and be yourself.

People can know you.

People can experience who you are.

God will cover you.

He will show you who to be around.

He will bring the right people into your life.

He will bring the right experiences into your life.

He will make sure that you stay away from the people you're not supposed to be around.

Listen to him.

Walk with him.

Learn from him.

He's your shepherd.

He's got it covered.

Okay, let's take.

We have Lord's Supper.

We're gonna do Lord's Supper.

If you don't have one of these, they're at the back columns in the back of the room, and grab one.

Because this is our ultimate covering.

When Jesus died, his blood covers us.

But this, as much as it is a spiritual thing, our sins are covered.

Your life is covered.

And this is the part when I was holding up all these lids that I didn't get.

I understood that my sins were covered.

I got that.

I'm saved.

But my life is covered.

God's character is to cover me.

My personality, my talents, like the things that He loves about me.

He delights in me, He delights in you.

That's covered.

You don't have to be shielded because He's your shield and your rock and your fortress.

So let go of the lids and let him cover you.

Okay, so we're gonna take the bread together.

We'll open it, uncover it, right?

Okay, all right.

Alright, and take the bread.

I want you to hold this bread.

It represents the body of Jesus.

The same Jesus who covered the woman brought to him in adultery, the blind beggar, the same Jesus who looked at the thief on the cross, who said, I'm not worthy.

And Jesus looked at him and said, Today you're gonna be with me in paradise.

Everyone, he covered everyone.

There's no one he can't cover.

So you can be exposed before him and he'll cover you.

Not just your sins, but your life.

Let's pray over this bread.

Jesus, thank you for your death on the cross that this bread represents, your body sacrifice for us.

As we take it today, Lord, we remember that our sins, all of them, past, present, future, are covered.

And our lives are covered.

There's no reason for us to hold any lids because we are covered by your love.

We take this bread.

Thank you, Jesus.

And we'll uncover the juice which represents his blood.

And let's pray over this together.

Thank you, Jesus, for your blood, which covers us.

Again, a representation of your love.

Help us to see a picture of your blood as a banner over us, a covering of your love, and nothing can separate us from your love.

It's the best lid covering ever.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being a daily reminder of this.

Let's take the juice.